The FIA’s radical new rules for Formula One, featuring a voluntary budget cap from 2010 onwards, were criticised yesterday by one leading team principal, who described them as a “shock” and suggested that the FIA had rushed ahead without fully thinking its plans through.
After a sceptical response by Luca di Montezemolo, the Ferrari president, who said on Tuesday that the FIA had acted “unilaterally” and in a way that threatened the “very essence of Formula One”, Flavio Briatore, the Renault team principal, took a similar line, arguing that the governing body had rushed ahead without thinking things through.
Driver who stuck his head above the parapet was Jenson Button, who attacked the FIA’s new scoring system for the Formula One drivers’ championship. Button believes that the system, under which the champion could be the driver with the most grand prix wins regardless of his total points, may lead to confusion, especially among casual viewers of the sport.
Click Here For More Formula 1 Photos
World champion Lewis Hamilton said on Thursday that he was not a fan of Formula One’s new rules which will see the title awarded to the driver with the most race wins, rather than most points.
“I don’t like it really,” the 24-year-old Briton said.
“We want to be consistent, whether we come first or third. It should happen that a team and their drivers are rewarded for their performance over the whole year, not who won the most races.”
If the rules had been in operation in 2008, McLaren driver Hamilton would have finished runner-up to Ferrari’s Felipe Massa.
| 
|